The present invention relates to a bumper structure of an automotive vehicle.
A bumper is generally provided at a vehicle front portion of an automotive vehicle. A face member that forms an outer face of the bumper is generally made of a thin resin plate member for the purpose of weight reduction and the like. Accordingly, the face member may have a problem in that it tends to be easily deformed. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-170237, for example, discloses a face support member that is provided behind the face member to restrain deformation of the face member as a solution of the above-described problem.
Generally, in the automotive vehicle with en engine room provided at the vehicle front, a heat exchanger (radiator) is provided behind the bumper, and the face member has an outside-air intake that allows outside air to come therethrough toward the heat exchanger. Herein, there is a concern that the outside air that has passed through the heat exchanger and been warmed up by the heat exchanger flows into the engine room, thereby improperly increasing the temperature of the engine room.
Herein, according to the structure disclosed in the above-described patent publication, a grille opening is formed between a front edge of a bonnet hood and an upper edge of the face member in addition to the outside-air intake. The grille opening is located above an upper end of the heat exchanger so that the outside air coming through the grille opening can be supplied to the engine room without passing the heat exchanger. Thereby, the cooling function of the engine room can be improved.
However, there is a case where the heat exchanger is fixed to a vehicle body via a rectangular frame-shaped shroud panel, for example. In this case, the shroud panel is generally disposed in such a manner that there is a very small gap provided between its respective side portions and the vehicle body around them. Accordingly, even if the outside-air is taken in through the grille opening as disclosed in the above-described patent publication, the shroud panel may prevent the outside-air coming through the grille opening from properly flowing down to behind the panel and the heat exchanger.
Further, there may be case where the grille opening can not be provided between the front edge of the bonnet hood and the upper edge of the face member from a design perspective or the like.